


We Found Dove in a Soapless Place

by timetravelwithcamelotsdetective



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Puns, Fluff, M/M, Oblivious Arthur, flirting over laundry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6979018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetravelwithcamelotsdetective/pseuds/timetravelwithcamelotsdetective
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur doesn't know how to use his washing machine, or any washing machine, but the one thing he does know is that he loves Merlin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Found Dove in a Soapless Place

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the title inspiration Charlotte, who will never read this but she sang that version of that song to me in year 8 and now 6 years later it's still there. For any of you who don't know, Dove is a soap/shower gel/skin care brand in the UK which is why this makes some sort of sense! I wrote this because I feel fluffy and a little light headed but it's a lil one-shot drabble. Enjoy <3

They were sat in Merlin’s flat on a Saturday afternoon. Well, Merlin was sat. Arthur was standing, moping, puppy love in his eyes but not quite sure what to do.

“Your hygiene habits disturb me, Arthur Pendragon,” Merlin said, pulling his face away in disgust as Arthur waved his muddy football socks in his face, “When was the last time you washed those?”

 _When you last came to one a football match and, coincidentally, the last time we won_ , Arthur didn’t say. Instead he shrugged, shaking treacherous thoughts out of his head in the process. “I don’t do washing, Merlin, unless it’s of the showering kind.”

“Ah yes, Arthur Pendragon the famous showering God of Camelot village, how very quaint,” Merlin replied, returning to his book.

Arthur fidgeted for a while, unsure what to say. The rain had been particularly strong that day, and they’d lost again after Percy had slipped trying to score what could have been their only goal of the season. Hell, Arthur didn’t even _live_ in this flat, it was Merlin’s flat, but on Saturdays after footie he used the excuse that Merlin’s was closer and he was, as Merlin had so wonderfully phrased a showering God and he needed a shower before they all headed down to the pub. Yet this weekend, this weekend something felt… off. Well, something smelt off but those were his socks, and the knot in his stomach wasn’t easing.

He coughed, “Merlin…” _ohmygod Arthur this is gonna sound dweeby_ , “Could I wash them here?”

Merlin snorted, looking up from his book, his bright eyes fixed confusedly on Arthur.

“Is using up all my hot water not enough?” He laughed, “I know for a fact, Pendragon that your washing machine isn’t broken otherwise your cleaner would have got you to replace it already,” Arthur shuddered at the thought, Alice was scary when things weren’t working.

“You need to stop reading so many detective novels,” Arthur muttered, toing the floor with his now bare feet.

He looked up to see Merlin smiling softly, head cocked to the left, his book closed in his lap.

“Do you even know how to use a washing machine?”

“O-“ who was Arthur kidding of course he had no idea how to use a washing machine _THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT, Merlin!_ “No…”

“So why not, as you usually do, leave them for Alice to wash?”

“Because I… well because…” Arthur scratched the back of his head, _dweeby, Arthur, dweeby!_ “I like the smell of you – of your clothes – of… fuck.”

Silence sat awkwardly between them for a moment. Arthur stared out of the window, his cheeks burning.

He heard Merlin shift, his legs swinging down off the sofa and with a grace he didn’t often show, Merlin stood and took two steps to cover the distance between them.

“Arthur?” Merlin said, hesitantly, and God didn’t Arthur hate that tone because Merlin had taken so long to come out of that shell around him he didn’t want to lose it again, “What are you saying?”

Arthur glanced up, fiddling absently with the socks still in his hand.

“We’re friends, Arthur –“

“Best friends.”

“Quite. Right. Best friends and –“

“It’s not – I want –“ and then Arthur made the biggest mistake of his life (well, in regards to his macho-ego it was a big mistake, everything else? Well 'mistake' wasn't quite the right word). He lifted his eyes from the socks twisted in his fingers and looked up at Merlin. At Merlin who was grinning. Not grinning his I’m-laughing-at-you grin, but his dopey, lopsided, you-oaf grin.

“Took you long enough, you oaf.”

Then Merlin was kissing him, gently at first and then harder until suddenly he pulled away.

“Arthur Pendragon, the man who flirts over dirty laundry, would you like me to teach you how to use a washing machine?”

“Is that meant to be a euphemism?”

Merlin laughed, and laughed and laughed, “Only if you want it to be, shower God.”

 

 


End file.
